It’s just after Pesach when Mordechai Rosenfeld joins me on Zoom from the US. I wish him a chag sameach. He smiles knowingly. Rosenfeld is quite well known for his Ashkenazi vs Sephardi shticks. In fact, his Shabbat Shalom video was one of the first ones I ever saw. I was hooked instantly. Warning, if you start watching it, you’ll go down a Modi rabbit hole, so make sure you have plenty of time on your hands. I promise he’ll keep you in stitches.
Our chat is casual and comfortable, and Modi, as Rosenfeld is professionally known, is gracious with his time and his humour. His humility oozes; it’s easy to forget the comparisons to such greats as Jackie Mason and Robin Williams. But then Modi tells a story and the similarities become clear. Immediately you can see why he’s so relatable and likeable. Not only is he hilarious, but he is also kind and considerate, basing his being on the concept of Moshiach energy.
Modi encapsulates the differences between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews beautifully.
It’s these differences, he told me, that make us so much stronger.
“Embrace the difference,” he laughed. “We’re all one nation – am echad – but we’re so different. This one is talking in Yiddish, this one in Arabic, this one is speaking French from Paris … It’s beautiful!”
Modi said it’s his job as a comedian to bring all of it together, to make sure everyone feels they are being heard, and to show what a beautiful tapestry of cultures Judaism is.
But how did a Wall Street banker become a comedian who has won Jewish and non-Jewish hearts around the world? It all started with impressions of the secretaries in his office and a tap on the shoulder from a friend who suggested that Modi should take his impressions to the stage.
Modi suddenly found himself in comedy clubs in the backstreets of New York’s Greenwich Village, where the venues are small and cramped, but from which huge comedians have launched their careers.
And Modi has joined their ranks.
When talking to Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom, Modi recalled showing up to his first open mic night in an “Armani suit, suspenders and all, while everyone else looked like they’d rolled out of bed”. As he said, talk about a fish out of water. But his act struck a chord with the club manager who begged him to come back.
And suddenly, he was part of New York’s stand-up scene.
“Back then, the voice was a big over-the-top character, and then it became more Jewish,” he said. His impressions were exaggerated accents and hilarious situations. His act began to resonate more and more with Jewish audiences, so he hit the road, taking it around the US.
But things changed when COVID-19 hit. While the comedian was on social media, he wasn’t concentrating too hard on it. Until he had little choice.
“During COVID, my husband and I were at home together and he’s younger. He’s a millennial. He began to take over the social media parts of it. And then he began to take over everything,” Modi laughed. “And now, here I am doing a show in Australia. That’s because my husband is on top of all of that.”
During lockdown, while many performers took a well-earned break, Modi decided to utilise his time and connect even deeper with his followers, well and truly taking his act global. For a comedian who is all about ‘knowing your audience’, suddenly he had to come up with content that would engage with all different kinds of people, not just the ones in the room.
“You feel the room,” Modi explained when I asked how he figures out his audience so quickly. “You can feel the energy in the room, what they want. You test a few jokes out and see how far you can go with them.” Modi said that you can tell when there are non-Jewish people in the room, and he’s a gun at calling them out and tailoring parts of his act to them. “The best is when you see everyone laughing together. That’s Moshiach energy.” Modi smiled as he pointed to his ‘Moshiach Energy’ hat sitting on his head, which is my cue to ask about the concept. Turns out, it all comes back to COVID-19 times again.
“After COVID, we were doing shows and we were seeing people laugh again for the first time, all together,” he recalled. “You’re up there on stage, and you’re just seeing all this laughter. Moshiach isn’t here obviously – definitely if you look at the news it’s not – but you can create a little bit of Moshiach energy everywhere.” For Modi, Moshiach energy is creating a unifying force for making things better, which is what he often sees at his show. No matter who is in the room – Jews, non-Jews, gay, straight, Orthodox, Reform – everyone is laughing together.
Throughout our chat, Modi keeps me laughing. No matter what we’re talking about, Modi seems to find the joy in everything he possibly can. Even when talking about Israel and October 7, Modi finds a way to make those around him smile.
The comedian was in Israel when Hamas terrorists infiltrated the south. Following six sold-out shows, Modi and his husband Leo were due to fly out of Israel for Paris. And then at 6am, the sirens went off. Despite having been born in Israel and having been back hundreds of times, it was the first time he had been in Israel for the sirens. He didn’t know what to do, he recalled, especially as, in his words, “his sleeping pills were just kicking in”. Yet, even around the horror, Modi finds a way to make those around him laugh.
“We were staying at the Setai hotel in Yaffo, and we saw them whisk away Bruno Mars, who was staying at the hotel … they took him on a private plane to get him out,” he explained. “I said to my husband, ‘oh thank G-d they got him out of the country,’ and when he asked why, I said ‘because if a bomb would have hit this hotel and killed both of us, I would get zero press.’”
It’s impossible not to chuckle.
“If you’re creating Moshiach energy, that’s the goal.”
Modi and Leo ended up getting on the flight to Paris. While there was talk about cancelling or postponing his upcoming show, Modi decided that it must go on. Modi explains that he is used to performing his show following intense situations. When performing at fundraisers, he usually enters the stage after a heart-wrenching video describing the cause. Modi’s job is then to spread joy. While this time it all felt a bit too real, Modi knew that his audiences, many of whom had been glued to the horrific news for 48 hours, needed laughter. They needed a release.
So, on Monday October 9, Modi did his show. “We didn’t miss a beat,” he said. “It’s the Monday after Saturday, and the lights went down. I went on. We had a show. And that night, I began to sing Hatikvah with the audience.”
For Modi, singing Hatikvah reminds him once again that we are all one nation – am echad – and it’s his way of bridging comedy with the harsh realities that we continue to face.
“You just sit there, you laugh for an hour-and-a-half, and you kind of feel guilty almost. You know, ‘I’m laughing with what’s happening in the world … there’s hostages’. And then we sing Hatikvah and everybody’s like ‘yes our hearts are all in the same place. Our thoughts are all with the same people and prayers are with everybody.’”
While he acknowledges the state of the world, Modi has been careful not to change his act too much, conscious that he wants to give people time to escape.
“At the end, obviously with humour, I discuss antisemitism and what is happening in the world, and then lead into singing Hatikvah and Moshiach energy but I try not to make the war the focus of the show. I really want people to just have that downtime … the disconnect from the world for a minute just to laugh.”
Modi knows that as a nation we need moments to pause and breathe.
When we spoke, Modi hadn’t been back since the war broke out. But, within days of October 7, his team were already on the phone organising more visits. In July, he played two shows, and he will be going back in September.
“It’s the craziest thing in the world,” he laughed. “It’s almost like, you can’t kill us! We’re planning shows right after.”
Watching Modi on stage or on his social media channels, it’s easy to make a comparison to the best and brightest comedians in history. In an article for Variety, Jamie Masada, founder and owner of the Laugh Factory – the number one comedy club in the USA – compared Modi to Robin Williams and Richard Pryor, largely due to Modi’s ability to understand the nuances of his audience and cater to them. Comparisons have also been made to Jackie Mason, which Modi says is an absolute honour.
“Jackie Mason, in his time, was the voice of Jews. His big success was in the mid-80s. And back then, the Jews still spoke with a bit of an accent,” Modi explained. They were different to everyone else. “But he was like, ‘yes that’s what Jews think, and that’s what’s happening to Jews.’”
But, as Modi explained, things have changed today. As Jews, we are stronger.
“We’re a nation. The country has developed. There’s technology we’ve invented. There are Israelis, American Jews, all flavours of Jews. It’s stronger. There’s gay and there’s straight, and there’s Sephardi and Ashkenazi. And I feel like I try to get all of those voices in to give a portal into the Jewish world through laughter and pride.”
“I call my comedy a portal into the Jewish world…”
As Modi confirmed throughout our chat, he has his husband Leo to thank for most of his success. Being a gay, Jewish comedian may sound tough. But Modi is proud of his identity and is open to debate. He lays tefillin every day and he has had many rabbis on his podcast – which he hosts alongside Leo and fellow comedian Periel Aschenbrand – where he is unafraid to talk about the big issues. He knows not everyone shares his views, but he is always happy to have the conversation.
“I tell everybody who is gay, be a proud Jew and be you,” Modi said with a smile. “Go put on tefillin, put up your mezuzah. Just because you’re gay, doesn’t mean it’s all or none. Do whatever makes you create Moshiach energy better.”
As for the influence he carries being an openly gay, Jewish comedian, he said he’s happy to be the catalyst for the important discussions others may need to have.
“It’s just nice for the kids who are gay, [they] can say to their parents, ‘look, the comedian you watched, did you know he’s gay?’ It gives them a place to begin a conversation with their parents.”
Perhaps what makes Modi’s Jewish life even more special is the fact that Leo has embraced it all.
“He’s so Jewish,” Modi laughed. “He did the whole seder, he knows all the people, people are calling him. Our travel agent speaks almost only in Yiddish and Leo just knows all the words that he’s saying. He was born Catholic and he stopped, because you can [do that],” he chuckled. “In other religions, you can just stop whatever you were. Whereas being Jewish, you can’t just stop being Jewish.”
Which is why Modi describes himself as a Jewish comedian rather than a comedian who happens to be Jewish.
“Jerry Seinfeld is a comedian who is Jewish. He’s funny, and it’s a little bit of a Jewish flavour, but it’s not the core coming from Judaism. Whereas mine is,” Modi explained. That’s his theme – Jewish but relatable to people who aren’t Jewish, and a little bit of education.
“People always tell me, ‘oh I’ve always wondered what that means.’ I call my comedy a portal into the Jewish world,” he said. Like the Sephardi and Ashkenazi differences, or his bit about Hatzolah, his shiva jokes – yes, he makes those – and even down to the different ways Jews say hamotzi.
It’s this pride in his Judaism, and what Jews bring to the world despite our small population, that is ultimately at his core. That, and Moshiach energy.
“If you’re creating Moshiach energy, that’s the goal.”
Modi will be performing at the National Theatre in Melbourne on August 24 and 25, and the Enmore Theatre in Sydney on August 29. For tickets: tegdainty.com
Follow Modi on Instagram: @modi_live
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